Nadia Murad: from ISIS slave to Nobel prize winner

Iraqi Nadia Murad, the winner of the Sakharov Prize 2016 of the European Parliament shared with Congolese Denis Mukwege the Nobel Peace Prizefor their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon in war.

BREAKING NEWS: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. #NobelPrize#NobelPeacePrizepic.twitter.com/LaICSbQXWM

“The courage and resilience of Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, in their fight for common human values, deserve the #NobelPeacePrize. Proud that the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize has already saluted their extraordinary humanitarian work” wrote the Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament in his microblog.

The courage and resilience of Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, in their fight for common human values, deserve the #NobelPeacePrize. Proud that the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize has already saluted their extraordinary humanitarian work. #NobelPrizepic.twitter.com/y0nYBgTqHe

Captured by soldiers of Islamic state, Murad was transported to Mosul, the de facto “capital” of the ISIS’s caliphate.

During her ordeal Murad and the other women sex-slaves held captive and systematically gang-raped, tortured and beaten.

The terrorists organised slave markets for selling off the women and girls, and Yazidi women were forced to renounce their religion.

Determined to join her family Murad escaped and cross the few dozen kilometres to Iraqi Kurdistan to enter camps of the displaced Yazidi, where, she learnt that her mother and her six brothers were killed. Helped by an organisation that assists Yazidis, she reunited with her sister in Germany. Since then Murad has become a global voice, campaigning against violence.